1 Alleluia! Give thanks to Yahweh for he is good, his faithful love lasts for ever.
2 So let them say whom Yahweh redeemed, whom he redeemed from the power of their enemies,
3 bringing them back from foreign lands, from east and west, north and south.
4 They were wandering in the desert, in the wastelands, could find no way to an inhabited city;
5 they were hungry and thirsty, their life was ebbing away.
6 They cried out to Yahweh in their distress, he rescued them from their plight,
7 he set them on the road, straight to an inhabited city.
8 Let them thank Yahweh for his faithful love, for his wonders for the children of Adam!
9 He has fed the hungry to their hearts' content, filled the starving with good things.
10 Sojourners in gloom and shadow dark as death, fettered in misery and chains,
11 for defying the orders of Yahweh, for scorning the plan of the Most High-
12 he subdued their spirit by hard labor; if they fell there was no one to help.
13 They cried out to Yahweh in their distress, he rescued them from their plight,
14 he brought them out from gloom and shadow dark as death, and shattered their chains.
15 Let them thank Yahweh for his faithful love, for his wonders for the children of Adam!
16 He broke open gates of bronze and smashed iron bars.
17 Fools for their rebellious ways, wretched because of their sins,
18 finding all food repugnant, brought close to the gates of death-
19 they cried out to Yahweh in their distress; he rescued them from their plight,
20 he sent out his word and cured them, and rescued their life from the abyss.
21 Let them thank Yahweh for his faithful love, for his wonders for the children of Adam!
22 Let them offer thanksgiving sacrifices, and recount with shouts of joy what he has done!
23 Voyagers on the sea in ships, plying their trade on the great ocean,
24 have seen the works of Yahweh, his wonders in the deep.
25 By his word he raised a storm-wind, lashing up towering waves.
26 Up to the sky then down to the depths! Their stomachs were turned to water;
27 they staggered and reeled like drunkards, and all their skill went under.
28 They cried out to Yahweh in their distress, he rescued them from their plight,
29 he reduced the storm to a calm, and all the waters subsided,
30 and he brought them, overjoyed at the stillness, to the port where they were bound.
31 Let them thank Yahweh for his faithful love, for his wonders for the children of Adam!
32 Let them extol him in the assembly of the people, and praise him in the council of elders.
33 He has turned rivers into desert, bubbling springs into arid ground,
34 fertile country into salt-flats, because the people living there were evil.
35 But he has turned desert into stretches of water, arid ground into bubbling springs,
36 and has given the hungry a home, where they have built themselves a city.
37 There they sow fields and plant vines, and reap a harvest of their produce.
38 He blesses them and their numbers increase, he keeps their cattle at full strength.
39 Their numbers had fallen, they had grown weak, under pressure of disaster and hardship;
40 he covered princes in contempt, left them to wander in trackless wastes.
41 But the needy he raises from their misery, makes their families as numerous as sheep.
42 At the sight the honest rejoice, and the wicked have nothing to say.
43 Who is wise? Such a one should take this to heart, and come to understand Yahweh's faithful love.
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